


Findings

by AinsleyVenters



Category: Gravity Falls, Rick and Morty
Genre: Duck-tective - Freeform, Fluff and Humor, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, M/M, Mabel Pines Is Awesome, Mentions of Violence, Temporary Amnesia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-24
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:08:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21552001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AinsleyVenters/pseuds/AinsleyVenters
Summary: 1. Mabel finds and old box and has questions for Stan.2. Rick pays a visit but Stanley doesn't remember him.3. Stan's grandniece insists on spending time with Rick.'Findings' in three parts.
Relationships: Stan Pines/Rick Sanchez (Rick and Morty)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 63





	Findings

**I: Mixtapes and Spanish**

_Before Stanford got back._

"Grunkle Stan, what's this?" Asked Mabel, making him further his eyes from the tv.

It was a lazy afternoon, not much movement on the Mystery Shack. The girl and Stan were in the living room, she was going through some old things Soos had piled up in the corner for not knowing where to store it.

"Hm..." Stan examined the box full of tapes, he remembered it vaguely. It was a shoe box he kept in the car when he used to travel around staging scams. “They are tapes, what we used to listen to music before the CDs”

“I though you used vinyl” said the girl, always thinking he was a hundred years old.

“That too, but tapes were portable, those stayed in my car when I travelled around.”

Stan had the box in his hands now. It was covered in scribbles on blue spherographic pen and, on ticker lining, black permanent marker.

He remembered that when was Stan's time to drive, Rick enjoyed scribbling on the box. So much so, that blue covered most of it. Stan found both their signatures, song lyrics, equations, band names and doodles.

“This is Spanish. You learned on school, Grunkle Stan?”

“Yeah, is Spanish. But I didn’t know mush at the time. I didn’t pay much attention on school, only learned it on Columbia.”

He met Rick in high school, Rick was like Stan and Ford mixed together trying not to explode. He was a fucking genius, but he didn’t care about anything. They dated in secret from everyone but Ford.

Rick expend most of his time on their house, since on his there was never food, there was never love either. Just a lot of fighting, booze and cigarettes. 

We they got older, they hit the road. Living in a car, trying to make money wherever and however they could.

"Hm... Which handwriting is yours?"

"What?"

"There are two different ones"

"The capital one. On black marker” he answered slowly, knowing what the next question would be “the other one is of an old friend."

"Rick Sanchez” she said finding the signature. “Old boyfriend, you mean. Here it says in Spanish 'you are so damn stupid for thinking I want to leave. I wish I didn't feel the shit I feel for you. It would be fucking simpler. You are my favorite person in the world, you stupid asshole'"

Stan froze, blushing and paralyzed.

He didn’t know how to act. How do you act when your grandniece finds out you also like men? But for his surprise, Mabel didn’t seem surprised, actually, she didn’t seem to care. Like it was a normal thing. Like he and Rick never got beat up for it. Like she accepted. “Yeah, you can say so”

“You still talk to him?” Mabel asked, still intressed in all things relationship wise.

“Sometimes,” Rick had helped with his enterprise to get Ford back “it’s been some years though.”

'Cause Rick had left. He made a family for himself. Had a daughter, and a wife. Then, when she was gone, he came to Stan, crying and on the verge of alcoholic coma. Like he always did.

– — –

 **II: Memories and Choco milk**

_That time when Stanley didn't remember some stuff._

Stan and Ford drank orange juice in the badly lit kitchen when a ‘pop’ noise came from the living room. 

"Fucking finally" a voice accompanied it.

The familiar snap made Stan’s heart speed up, but he didn’t know why. 

It had become familiar, the not remembering. Still annoying though.

"Shoot" Ford murmured under his breath.

"Whata fuck is wrong with this fuckin' city? I've been trying to reach it for days now." Said the very tall, very thin and very drunk man in a lab coat appearing from the shadows.

"It was surrounded by an electromagnetic field, it made impossible to come inside it. I suppose you came because of the anomalies" answered Ford.

"Yeah, and we know whose fault is that” Stan felt the newcomer's hand on his shoulder, it was thin, with long fingers “finally got you back, I thought he would end up dying trying to open that portal.”

Stanley stared at the man for a moment. 

Ford had a concerned gaze that asked if he needed help. “Do you remember Rick, Stan?” He inquired carefully with a movement of his head.

“No but is somewhat familiar. Nothing comes to mind, though”

"Wh-what is it, Stanley? Alzheimer's finally got to you?" Asked the man named ‘Rick’, hand on his shoulder. 

Why did this weird man thought he had permission to touch Stanley? "Listen, pal. I don't remember who you are."

"He lost his memory. We've been working on getting it back by talking about it" explained Ford.

"So. He doesn't remember our relationship of decades. Get it back? No way. He doesn't remember all the horrible shit I did. Let's get smashed till I forget it too." said Rick with a manic grin.

"No one is getting smashed" Ford opposed.

"Still got that stick up your ass, Ford? Looks like it got bigger"

"Who is he?" asked Stan, trying not to laugh.

"He…” Ford began hesitant. “He used to be your boyfriend back at high school and after, I think. After that, I don't know much or everything."

"Boyfriend?" Oddly, it didn't sound so strange being in a relationship with a man. "Are we still on a relationship?"

"We never stopped being in a relationship, old man." Rick offered a flirty grin.

"You had a wife, Rick. You have a daughter" spit Ford.

"And two stupid grandsons as well. What's the matter?"

Sometime later, Ford gave up micromanaging the conversation and left the two alone.

Stanley got really soon that Rick mostly lied or hid things about their past and called him 'Lee'.

After some time, he could remember a little. 

_Being held before falling asleep on a shady motel, but thinking he never been so happy._

_The taste of blood on his mouth and the cold rain on his aching body laid on the asphalt as he tried to reach for someone in the dark._

_The smell of vomit and booze on Rick's body as Stanley could only say "please don't die" like a mantra._

After around an hour being there, the light on the living room lit up, revealing a sleeping Mabel on unicorn pajamas.

“Mabel, what are you doing up?”

“Dipper is having a nightmare, he keeps talking while he sleeps. Do you guys want Choco milk?” 

Stanley made a ‘no’ and to his surprise, Rick accepted. She got two boxes, sat between then and looked at her uncle.

“Rick, this is Mabel, my grandniece, Shermy’s grandkid. She and Dipper. Mabel, this is Rick, and old friend”

“Oh, you are the mixtape guy” she eyed Rick, stopping him before he could put the straw on the box “wait, you have to shake it first.”

Stanley didn’t remember the mixtape conversation. “Mixtapes?” he inquired.

“Yeah, 'the idiot mix', 'the stupid mix', 'the asshole mix'. I found then in a pile of old things, inside a shoe box, remember? You said you kept them in your car while you travelled around. Did you guys used to travel together?”

“Yeah, on the first years. I made the mixes. Lee was shit at it” explained Rick.

"Don't curse" warned Stan.

Mabel continued unphased. “So cute, you guys are old and gross but still call each each other nicknames. Anyway, Dipper would listen to them sometimes. I think they are on the living room somewhere. Anyway, gotta go back to the bedroom. He will probably start crying if I'm not around for to long. Good night, it was nice to meet you, Rick.”

And then she left them to try figure out Stan's memories.

– — –

**III: Duck-tective and apologies**

_The next summer._

"Grunkle Rick, how do I find the Duck-tective show on the interdimensional TV?"

It was the summer after the whole Bill Chipher thing and Rick came to visit Stanley frequently since the kitchen re-encounter. They made it work between them. Rick wasn't sure how, yet.

They were on the living room, Rick on Stan's stupid chair that smelled like him and she sat on the floor.

“Don’t call me that. You are just like Lee. Infinite number of channels and still wants to watch the same thing. It's easier to use the normal tv.”

Mabel was ok. She was a little like Morty if he had an actual brain. But she made him do her makeup the other day, so she lost a few points on him. He could paint a face just fine; it was the giggling that put him off.

“It’s not on air right now. If there are so many channels, then must be one where Duck-tective is on.”

"You are not wrong” he took the controller and started switching channels looking for the stupid duck.

After less than four minutes, she spoke again, apparently not able to remain silent.

“Grunkle Rick, why did you leave? Grunkle Stan, I mean”

How could he _ever_ explain to anyone?

“I was stupid and wanted stupid things. Since we both were stupid, we split. Then I did my stupid things and he did his stupid things. _Apart_.” He summarized.

“Are you gonna leave Grunkle Stan again? Grunkle Ford doesn’t trust you.”

He thought about his parents' house, about dinner in Stanley's family house, about running away from town, getting beat in allies together, about getting into any shit job they could think of, about Stanley getting arrested.

Rick thought about getting the money they had and running away, about the box full of letters shoved in a shelf on the garage, about coming back to him when Diane died, thinking he would die too.

“I won’t leave him.” He signed “not for too long, at least." He stopped on a channel "There it is your stupid duck."

They watched the show together. Mabel made little impressed noises from time to time, but other than that, stayed silent.

The stupid show ended on a stupid cliffhanger and now Rick had to watch the next episode. 

Later that night, lying in the bed, staring at Stanley's square back, he remembered.

_Stanley was in prison and they talked sitting on a table on the visitation time._

_"They got me, they don't need to get you. Now, just go! Leave this fucking country."_

_Rick just shook his head, unable to access the situation fully._

_"Stop pretending that this between us is something more than just convenience. We wanted to bang and the other was there. We need help to make money and the other was there."_

_"You don't mean that." Said Rick, because it couldn't be real._ It's all a dream, isn't it? Or an hallucination. Or something.

_"Just go, Rick. I told you before. You don't own me shit."_

_"I…"_

_"I don't want you here." Stanley said in a final tone._

_And some weeks later Rick will have realized, even on his self-doubt, that Lee would have said anything to make him leave._

_But on the moment Stanley said it, he didn't. He got up, pretended he wasn't crying, left to somewhere — anywhere — and got high on whatever he got his hands on first._

_He doesn't remember who wrote first, but they begin exchanging letters from time to time, pretending 'the conversation' never happened._

He waited until the he was sure Stanley was asleep and murmured "I am sorry."

Because what Lee couldn't hear couldn't be used against Rick.

And because Stanley already knew, even if it was never said. 

And Stanley was sorry too.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this [fanart](https://spinetrick.tumblr.com/post/139576064660/i-wanted-to-draw-some-sad-memory-loss-stanchez-but).
> 
> — AV


End file.
